242 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Plate XIII. — continued. 

 Fig. 18. Isoplectron armatuin, supra-anal plate. 

 Fig. 18«. „ subgenital plate. 



Fig. 186. „ hind femur. 



Fig. 19. Isoplectron calcaratum, bind femur. 

 Fig. 19a. „ apex of hind tibia. 



Fig. 196. „ subgenital plate of female. 



Fig. 20. Macropathus filifer, subgenital plate of male. 

 Fig. 20a. „ portion of antenna. 



Art. XV. — Note on the Mantis formd in Neio Zealand. 



By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.E.S., Curator of the Canterbury 



Museum. 



[Bead before the PJiilosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th November, 



1896.] 



Only one species of Mantis is known to me in New Zealand, 

 which is the following : — 



Orthodera ministralis, Fabricius. 

 OrtJiodera prasina, Burmister, Handbook, ii., p. 526 (1839). 

 Mantis mhrocoxata, Serville, Orthopteres, p. 203 (1839). 

 Bolidena /io6so?m, Blanchard, Voy. " Astrolabe" et " Zelee," 

 Zool., iv., p. 356, pi. i., fig. 7 (1853). Orthodera prasina, 

 H. de Saussure, Mel. Orthop. Mantides, p. 163 (1870). 

 Mantis novcs-zealandice, Colenso, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 

 xiv., p. 277 (1882). Mantis, sp., Potts, Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 vol. xvi., p. 114 (1884). Tenodcra intermedia, Hudson, 

 Man. N.Z. Entomology, p. 109, pi. 17, fig. 2 (1892). 

 Inhabits Eastern Australia and Tasmania. 

 In this species the pronotum is rather broad, roof-shaped, 

 and gradually getting broader towards the anterior end, -".vhich 

 is truncated. It is also easily recognised by the black spot 

 bordered with blue, on the inner side of each anterior femur. 



The Eev. W. Colenso says that he first saw this insect at 

 Napier in 1878. He had long been on the lookout for a New 

 Zealand Mantis, as Dr. Sinclair had taken egg-cases to Eng- 

 land nearly forty years before.* It does not appear to have 

 reached Wellington in 1891, for Mr. G. V. Hudson thought 

 that the species was confined to the South Island, his speci- 

 mens having been obtained in Nelson. I never saw it in 

 Auckland or the Waikato, where I lived from 1866 to 1870, but 

 a specimen was sent me from Auckland about ten years ago. 



* See Dieffenbach's " New Zealand," vol. ii., p. 280. 



